(Gifted
young Cape Town tenor Thando Mjandana makes his professional solo debut with
the KZNPO in Haydn’s “Creation” on Thursday)
Concert season to end on a high note. (William
Charlton-Perkins Classical Notes courtesy of The Mercury)
The final concert of the KZN Philharmonic’s
Late Spring Season on Thursday (November 16) sees the orchestra’s associate
guest conductor, Daniel Boico, making a welcome return to the Durban City Hall
podium. The evening will be devoted to music by Rossini, Saint-Saens and Haydn.
Semiramide, Rossini’s neo-classical masterpiece, premiered at La Fenice in
Venice in 1823 with his wife, the Spanish soprano Isabella Colbran, singing the
title role. The last opera the composer wrote for the Italian stage before
settling in Paris, the work stands as a grand summation of the classical opera
seria form.
Set to a libretto based on a drama by
Voltaire, it focuses on a love triangle between Semiramide, Queen of Babylon,
an evil prince and a young man of whom Semiramide is at first enamoured, but
who turns out to be her son. The opera’s magnificent Overture, which
thematically forecasts its grandiose plot, held the stage as a self-standing
concert piece throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, long before the
opera’s return to the repertoire in recent decades.
Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor
follows. The work was written for the Belgian virtuoso Auguste Tolbecque, who
premiered it in January 1873 at a Paris Conservatoire concert, where it was
hailed by the music historian, Sir Francis Tovey as “a violoncello concerto in
which the solo instrument displays every register without the slightest
difficulty in penetrating the orchestra."
Many composers, including Shostakovich and
Rachmaninoff, considered the work to be the greatest of all cello concertos. It
offers a superb showcase for the KZN Philharmonic’s Associate Principal
Cellist, Aristide du Plessis, as the first of the evening’s soloists.
After intermission, Durban concert-goers
will have the exciting opportunity of experiencing two young
stars-in-the-making, Sibongile Mntambo (soprano) and Thando Mjandana (tenor),
appearing in their professional debuts as guest soloists with the Clermont
Community Choir, in highlights from Haydn’s oratorio, The Creation.
Cape Town based Mntambo and Mjandana are
part of the wave of South Africa’s new generation of operatic talent that in
recent years has produced luminaries such as Pumeza Matshikiza, Pretty Yende,
Levy Sekgapane and Makudu Senoana, among others.
The
Creation came into being when Haydn was an
acclaimed 65-year-old veteran with a distinguished career behind him as a
composer of symphonies, operas, masses, string quartets and piano music.
Exposure to Handel’s great oratorios, while on a visit to London, inspired the
Viennese master to conquer the Handelian oratorio too. Its first public
performance in London in April 1800 was greeted with wild acclaim. Haydn’s
delight in illustrating each part of nature infused the score with a life-force
that swiftly ensured its honoured place in the annals of choral singing.
The work offers a fitting climax to our
concert season, which also celebrates 25 years of collaboration between the
Clermont choristers and the KZN Philharmonic.
The concert starts at 19h30, and booking for this not-to-be-missed event
is through Computicket on 0861 915 8000, or online at www.computicket.com
Meanwhile, chamber music lovers can look
forward to an evening of music for piano and clarinet duo by 20th century
composers, when pianist Joanna Wicherek and clarinetist Tiaan Uys appear in
recital for Friends of Music at the Durban Jewish Centre on Tuesday (November
14).
Their programme includes: the Fantasie Italienne by Eugène Bozza; Wiatr od morza by Jacek Grudzień; Robert
Muczyński’s Time pieces; Witold Lutosławski’s Dance Preludes; Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano;
and Four Hungarian Dances by Rezső Kókai.
The evening’s prelude performer at this
concert will be Lungelo Hlophe (tenor) from Lihlthembe High School who won
second prize at the recent I Grandi Tenori schools Opera singing competition.
Tickets at the door are R80 (members), R100
(non-members) and R20 (students). Safe parking is available at the venue, which
is situated at 44 KE Masinga (Old Fort) Road.
Finally, note that Baroque 2000’s next
concert is on Sunday November 19 at 15h00, at the Church of the Mariannhill
Monastery as usual. Featuring the Drakensberg Boys Choir, the programme
comprises: Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op3 No 4 HWV 315; choruses from Messiah
- including the famous Hallelujah Chorus;
and Vivaldi’s Gloria in D Major RV 589. Tickets at the door are R150. Ample and
safe parking is available. This
programme will also be presented at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on November
30 at 19h00. Booking is preferred via www.ticketpros.co.za.
(The third performance in the Drakensberg
Boys Choir Auditorium at Champagne Castle on December 2 is sold out). - William
Charlton-Perkins
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